Protesters flipped over a table and ripped up the group’s flyers explaining the life-altering risks associated with transition.
A student protester was arrested for assault on Thursday at Michigan State University after flipping over a display set up by a conservative student organization to highlight the stories of detransitioners, causing the table to strike two students who were overseeing the display.
On Thursday, the college’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter had an approved display set up in Brody dining hall that included a tri-fold poster with stories from detransitioners, such as Chloe Cole, Scott Newgent, and Max Lazzara. The poster detailed their stories of undergoing invasive hormone therapy and sex-change surgeries that still cause mental anguish and physical secondary complications today. Flyers with facts about the life-altering risks and rising regret surrounding medical gender transitions also sat on the table.
Their display included a transgender pride flag printed with the words “DO NO HARM,” campus newspaper The State News reported. The flyers read, “men cannot be women.”
A number of people gathered to form a protest, holding cardboard signs that read, “Trans rights are human rights,” according to a MSU student who chose to remain anonymous. At first, most of the interactions between the groups seemed peaceful, until a few protesters repeatedly threw away all the YAF flyers. One protester turned aggressive and tried to take down one of the taped signs on the table, the student said. After struggling to remove it, he ripped up the poster, nearly pulled the table cover off the table, and yelled at the members by calling them “bigots.”
The protester remarked that one of them was Native American and “two-spirited,” according to the student’s retelling of events. Shortly after, the police arrived to speak with both sides to collect information. As the police were leaving, one person ran past a cop and flipped the table over, hitting two of the members standing behind it.
The police quickly apprehended the aggressor, arresting him for simple assault and violating MSU Ordinance 15.03 which states, “No person shall obstruct, hinder, or impede the normal use or operation of any campus building or area which has been assigned or scheduled for educational or extracurricular activities,” the publication noted. The two students who were hit are pressing charges, the student said.
Until 4:00 p.m. when their reservation ended, the chapter remained at the table. As they packed up, the large protesting crowd cheered.
MSU police did not immediately respond to National Review‘s request for comment.
“We support our students as they exercise their right to free speech, as well as the rights of others to disagree in a peaceful manner. We support all of our students, in particular those who are marginalized and minoritized here on campus and in larger society,” Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Genyne Royal told The State News in a statement. “We believe that no one’s identity should be questioned or devalued. That is the core of our institutional values around inclusion.”